A Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) is a call center that answers calls to emergency services (e.g., ambulance, fire, police or other emergency agency such as Coast Guard in coastal areas) and can provide information and dispatch help, including one or more first responders. Counties, cities, municipalities and the like can fund one or more PSAPs to provide such emergency services.
Several problems may arise when a widespread emergency situation occurs (e.g., earthquake, flood, hurricane, tornado, tsunami, etc.). PSAPs, utilities, transportation and other infrastructure can have service interruptions or can be destroyed. Next Generation 911 (where available) has taken initial steps to solve the PSAP portion of this problem by rerouting calls to another PSAP that is still functioning (e.g., has communication capabilities and dispatch capabilities). The limitation here is whether or not the infrastructure for the wireless call (cell towers), wireline (lines and switches), Internet (service provider network) and other transmission means are still intact. Emergency Services IP Network (ESInet) and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) with its Functional & Interface Standards for Next Generation 911 (e.g., I3) go further by using a common IP network to link PSAPs (and occasionally other emergency services).
Current solutions fall short of solving problems created by a widespread emergency as demonstrated by such events as Typhoon Pablo, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, and the like. In the analysis of system incompatibilities, system failures, interagency interoperability, failure of initiative and preparation, the government agencies point out many failures of 911, e911, and other emergency communication systems.
Many reports to varying degrees show that response readiness, inter-agency communication and coordination, disaster/outage mapping, public reporting, and activation of emergency resources should all be better served. Dissimilar code practices, incompatible systems and methodologies, jurisdictional boundaries, available resources, and resource capabilities all need to be better utilized in a large-scale disaster.